This is my first time trying to put together a recording of something which will become a podcast, and it seems like I have 10 "post processing" steps which I am currently doing manually.

It's entirely possible (in fact, it's likely) that I'm doing this in a way which is much harder than it has to be, but I don't know how to automate and/or simplify it. I'm hoping others who know more about this process might chime in and tell me how to make it simpler.

I'm starting with an AIFF file which has to be edited (cutting off time at the beginning and ending). This strikes me as the only step which can't be automated.

Edit AIFF in Fission to just contain the recording

Export as AIFF

Open Intro (a pre-recording mp4), Outro (same), and new recording (AIFF) in QuickTime7

Create new document in QuickTime7, and then Copy/Paste: 1) the Intro, 2) the new recording, and 3) the Outro.

Export AIFF from QuickTime7

Open AIFF in Levelator

Import leveled AIFF in iTunes

Export leveled AIFF to MP3 (iTunes) at a certain bitrate

List item

Add tags to MP3 (iTunes) checking to make sure I'm using same tags I used in previous episodes in all required fields except for the episode title which is different.

It seems like steps 2-10 should be something I can automate, even the tagging, except for the episode title, which I can manually add before I upload it to the server.

So how can I automate this, or otherwise make it easier / less error-prone?

This isn't a complete answer but could be useful: I put this script together a while ago to help automate tagging podcast files. It sets tags based on the contents of a JSON file so you can re-use the tags from the previous episode automatically and change only the title.
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Nathan GreensteinSep 3 '12 at 23:51

@patrix I purchased and downloaded GarageBand from the Mac App Store, but when I went to launch it, it told me I needed to download 2 GB worth of additional files and I was at home and couldn't do it there. (Metered satellite connection.)
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TJ LuomaSep 4 '12 at 2:58